


Special delivery

by WahlBuilder



Series: Scarves and Mittens [13]
Category: Horus Heresy - Various Authors
Genre: Fluff, Other, Secret Santa, jumping from building to building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:49:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9052255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder
Summary: Koyne is the year's elf, but after delivering all the gifts, they still have one special gift of their own for a very special person.





	

Koyne pressed themself to the wall and eyed the gap between two spires. Below, the traffic was light due to two reasons. One: it was the end of the year and people were busy preparing for the celebrations, cooking food, making last adjustments to their costumes, giving visits to their friends and relatives.

Two: the spires belonged to the Assassins.

Little did the people know about them!

Koyne had recently returned from the duty of delivering presents. Someone had read about the old Terran tradition in a book or found it in some other way, but everybody liked it _and_ it provided an opportunity to test the Assassins’ skills.

So every year at the beginning of the last month all Assassins received the name of their gifting match. During the months they had to recon the match’s preferences and possible items for the gift, then find those items. The only gift restriction was, no items for the missions. So, no weapons, no poison, no armour—it was simply too easy and impersonal. After assembling the present, the Assassins had to give it to one of the couriers. For some reason they were called ‘elves’. Koyne thought it was an ancient term meaning ‘courier’ or ‘messenger’. Usually Koyne and their kindred volunteered for the elves duty. The elves had to deliver the gifts, and since most of the gift-givers preferred to stay anonymous to their match, a Callidus could change their appearance, sneak into the dormitory or office of the receiver and place the gift with all secrecy this important task required.

The elves had developed their own tradition. Who would deliver all their assigned gifts the fastest? Who would do so without being seen by anyone? All of it was the part of the holiday merriment.

This year, Koyne’s match was a Culexus. They were usually among the hardest to determine a proper gift for. Koyne had found their match’s inclinations almost by chance, while sneaking into the Culexus’s refectorium and wearing the face of one of the serfs. The Culexus loved cakes.

Getting a cake—after a bit of searching for further information about the Culexus’s tastes—was not hard either. Koyne had simply posed as a middle-class citizen and ordered the desired cake—whipped cream and cherries—in a bakery. But how to place it into the Culexus’s dorm and make sure nobody stumbles upon it by chance and ravages it mercilessly?

It had taken Koyne a few days to find a solution, and then few days more to implement it. The cake had been placed into portable refrigerator which, in turn, had been put into a container with a bio-lock. Only Koyne’s Culexus would be able to open it.

Koyne hoped the Culexus would be happy.

Now, watching the lazy traffic below, only a few levels of cars, Koyne checked a mental list of gifts they had to deliver. Seemed like they’d placed all of them. They sent a quick message to their coordinator, and their gauntlet vibrated with a confirmation.

Koyne’s elven duty was over, and they had a few hours for themself. They still had one gift to deliver—a personal gift.

They looked across the street to the other spire. Good thing the two buildings were exactly the same outside, with two twin-alike sets of gargoyles. Koyne stepped onto the head of the sneering gargoyle and activated climbing claws—the Eversor they borrow the claws from had assured Koyne that they wouldn’t break against the masonry of the spires. Koyne was her elf, and when they had asked—very casually—about any equipment they could use for jumping from building to building—with discretion—she had laughed and handed them the claws. Then she had pointed at the most comfortable spot from which Koyne could jump to the other spire and land right at the level where Eversor dormitories were.

Was it so obvious? Not that Koyne was hiding their affections for one particular Eversor—and the Garantine himself had started skipping cryosleep in favour of long walks or spars with Koyne…

The Callidus shook their head, checked the bag on their belt, and, eyeing the distance between the two buildings, jumped.

Their modified muscles carried them over the buzzing traffic below—but with freezing heart Koyne realised that it won’t be enough… And then the claws vibrated and jerked Koyne to the gargoyle, sliding right into its mouth.

Koyne made an ungraceful arc under the gargoyle but they had managed to redistribute their mass to not hit the wall too hard. They pulled themself up and swung on top of the gargoyle. It was vibrating, too.

Somebody had put a magnetic mechanism into it that matched that of the claws. It seemed the Eversors used this method to travel from spire to spire frequently.

Koyne deactivated the claws, and the gargoyle stopped vibrating, too. The ledge running around the spire was narrow, but Koyne had no problems walking over it. Now, they had to guess which one of the huge curtained windows was leading to the Garantine’s dorm room.

Eversors, as Koyne had found out, usually lived in rooms for four, but most of the fearsome berserkers preferred cryosleep. Gar had told Koyne once that you couldn’t see nightmares in the cryosleep, though it made you groggy and you saw other strange things. Not frightening, but simply disturbing.

It was more preferable to waking up screaming. Shaken by a nightmare, Eversors reserved to the self-defence way they knew most intimately: meaning, ‘kill everyone in sight’.

Koyne had been lucky when Gar had woken up with a growl from a nightmare but had managed to recognise Koyne instantly and not kill them.

So, usually the Eversor dormitories were half-empty. But everybody would be awake on the day of receiving gifts.

Koyne was walking past the fourth window to the right of the gargoyle when their comm-link came alive. ‘The next window, trickster. I know you’re there.’

Gar’s voice sounded well, he seemed to be in a good, calm mood.

Koyne snorted. ‘Are you tracking my signal? I thought I checked myself for bugs well enough.’

‘No bugs, dolly,’ he drawled the pet name with obvious pleasure. ‘I always know where you are. So come here.’

Koyne walked a dozen steps further to the fifth window. ‘I’m here. Let me inside?’ They stood to the side, and the tall, two meter window parted outside. Dark-green curtains with embroidered golden ivy leaves billowed like sails. Koyne stepped around the curtains and found themself being pulled by strong arms inside the room.

Anyone else Koyne would have stabbed for carrying them like this, but Koyne didn’t mind when Gar did it.

Gar put them down on the floor and reached past Koyne to close the window, cutting off the noise of the traffic.

The room was lit by small shaded lamps that stood on the bedside tables. Koyne looked around. They had visited several Eversor dorm rooms, and each of them was very neat—unlike rooms of the most Vindicare—and had almost no personal possessions. Eversors tended to take their few personal items with them to the cryo-pods.

One corner of the room drew Koyne’s attention. The bed to the left of the door leading to the corridor stood by a patch of wall with a mural. It was complex, too complex for Koyne to assess every detail. It had many figures, plants, people, Eldar, buildings of various architectural silhouette… Among this mass Koyne had spotted a Knight, and another massive figure resembled a Warhound Titan. The edges of the mural contained only half-started outlines.

‘The Killbull needs to draw the things he sees and people he meets,’ said Gar. ‘Though he never discloses anything he encounters on his missions. Why were you sneaking and jumping between The Twins like an acolyte, Koyne?’

Koyne managed to tear his gaze away from the mesmerising mural, and raise a brow at their Eversor. ‘The Twins? What are… Oh! The gargoyles?’ Terran seas, Eversors had even given them names! In their own fashion, of course.

At Gar’s nod they continued, ‘I wanted to see you, of course, and suggest going for dancing tonight. A few quarters from here there’s going be a good dancing party, and,’ they hastened to add before Gar could try to reject the suggestion, ‘they will be teaching the dances, so we are good!’

Gar’s scarred face crumpled into a confused grimace, and he looked at himself. ‘I have nothing fancy to wear, I’m afraid.’

Koyne made a few steps back and looked at their Eversor critically. ‘You’re fine as you are.’ Gar was wearing black high heel boots laced at the sides, a short skirt made of leather stripes dyed green, and a green blouse with golden ivy embroidery… Koyne did a double-take, then looked at the curtains and snickered. ‘Did you use the curtains to make this blouse?’

Gar huffed, indignant, and put his hands on his hips. ‘This year our whole level is in green and gold, and we are wearing the same colours.’ The expression on his face turned from indignant to worried. ‘Am I not good? Did I make a mistake with my clothes?’

Koyne smiled and shook their head. ‘No, Gar. You look good. I just need to find a matching outfit. But I was planning to change anyway. Do you want to go to that party?’ Oh, Gar didn’t have to change anything, and Koyne couldn’t wait to see the warrior moving sensuously on those amazing heels. Nobody could move on high heels better than Eversors—and there was no better Eversor than the Garantine. ‘If you don’t want to, it’s fine. We can stay here or go somewhere else.’

‘No, I want to go. With you.’ Gar lowered his head and smiled sheepishly—which looked odd on his scarred, terror-inspiring face, but was absolutely priceless and endearing for Koyne.

‘I have a thing to add to your outfit, though, and it’s good that I guessed the colour right.’ Koyne fumbled in the bag on their belt, went to Gar… Then frowned. ‘Uh, Gar. Please, bend down a little? You are terribly tall for me on those heels.’

It pleased Koyne how quickly their Eversor obeyed their wish. Now that Koyne could reach Gar properly, they threw their gift around the Eversor’s neck, made a few coils and arranged them artfully on Gar’s shoulders. They made a step back to admire their handiwork. ‘Thank you. You can straighten up now.’

The scarf was a mass of fluff, emerald-green with golden thread in it. It glimmered even in the dim lighting of the room, and Koyne tried to imagine how it would glimmer in the lights of the dancing, moving with Gar’s body.

Perfect.

The Eversor was perfect.

He stood there with a puzzled look on his face, then ran his fingers through the glittering mesh. Koyne could understand him well; the scarf was very nice to the touch, soft and fluffy. And it whispered softly with every movement.

Gar looked up at Koyne, and his eyes were alight with joy. The Eversor made a few steps to Koyne and scooped them up.

Koyne laughed, their face tickled by the scarf. ‘Happy holidays, love.’ They wrapped their arms around the Eversor’s thick neck. The arrangement of the scarf was ruined anyway. They’d fix it later.

‘Thank you,’ Gar whispered into their ear, and his hot breath touched Koyne’s cheek and made them shiver. ‘You are the best. I liked it very much, doll.’

Koyne smiled and held onto his Eversor, considering wrapping their legs around his waist and… postponing going to the dancing. But they had the whole night and the day after it for themselves. ‘Now, if you put me down, I will change out of my gear and we’ll go to the party, yes?’

Gar mumbled something affirmative, and Koyne’s feet touched the floor again.

They looked at their Eversor again, then winced. ‘Oh no, I have to jump from the gargoyle again. I should have brought the clothes with me, but I didn’t know what you would be wearing.’

Gar opened the window, and the quiet room was filled with the hum of the traffic again. The wind entered the room, too, and started playing with the fluff of the scarf.

The Eversor reached out and smiled. ‘We go together. I haven’t visited The Twins for a while.’

Koyne snorted and put their hand into Gar’s palm. ‘Let’s say hello to them.’


End file.
